ECPA Modernization Act of 2017 Introduced

The Swine Line is the staff blog of Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) and the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW). For questions, contact blog@cagw.org.

July 27, 2017 - 17:35 — Deborah Collier

The following statement is attributable to Thomas A. Schatz, President, Council for Citizens Against Government Waste on the introduction of the ECPA Modernization Act of 2017 on July 27, 2017:

"The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste applauds Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah), and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) for introducing the ECPA Modernization Act of 2017, which would modernize the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986. Documents and other digital “papers” are stored in the cloud or online in other ways unthought of when the law was originally enacted. As a result, courts have struggled to apply the Fourth Amendment’s protections against unreasonable searches and seizures to those documents. The Lee-Leahy bill would alleviate this problem by providing the same legal protections for data stored locally in one’s home or office as information stored online. The process for obtaining a warrant would apply equally to all government agencies seeking access to content, which creates certainty for both businesses and individuals that may be subject to such a search for information. This much-needed legislation should be passed by the House and Senate and signed into law as soon as possible."